Interview on Monday, need to relax!
polycounter lvl 10
Got a phone interview with Valve lined up for Monday evening, this'll be my first interview (pretty much ever) and I'm getting incredibly worked up already.
How do you guys unwind and relax before an important interview?
How do you guys unwind and relax before an important interview?
Replies
Other things you could do to calm down:
- Exercise and really work up a sweat
- Take a shower (maybe after the exercise)
- Have a stiff drink (but not too much) or something like a beer or two
- Meditate and use breathing exercises
- Take a crap right before the interview
- Do something that takes intense focus. Maybe something like working with Hammer.
- Watch a funny movie or TV show
- Take off your pants before the interview starts and just chill for a few minutes
This.
You've got an interview with valve. This means they are definitely impressed with what you have to offer. They looked at your portfolio and they decided they wanted to hire you. Now with the phone interview they are trying to find out why they wouldn't want to hire you. If you are yourself and don't behave in a weird way, there shouldnt be a problem at all. You'll do fine man, good luck
Considering they've already seen what you can do on your own maybe think about social skills that you have that you may need to talk about over the phone. Meeting deadlines, using spreadsheets, being organized, working with others, these are things they may touch on on the phone that you may want to think about before the interview. How did you take feedback into account while making your maps? what was your design process?
Best of luck! Let us know how it goes.
DAYMN.
Spend the day relaxing, get yourself in a good mood. If you want to work in hammer before the interview, relax and work on something fun. Good luck man! Things sound pretty good!
When you sit down in a chair, make yourself comfortable and open up your body language. Let your arms rest at the sides, and gesture when you're talking.
Remember that you're there for a reason, they are interested in you. They just want to know if they can work with you and that you're sociable and not a douchebag. So relax
Good luck man! Rooting for you!
Another golden opportunity to wear the prints from your fingers.
After that have a coffee, you dont want to fall asleep in the interview.
And congratulations
Adam did a talk here in Toronto for the local IDGA, and he talks about his interview at Valve. The whole speech is a good listen, but the Valve talk starts around 36:00 if thats what you`re looking for.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/utm_campaign=synclickback&source=http://www.polycount.com/2011/10/22/toronto-igda-talk-by-adam-bromell/&medium=18026601
I have an interview in an hour and I'm doing just this. Just a few sips is enough to relax me and I also have a sheet of paper with all the facts written down so I can answer clearly instead of hesitating due to being nervous. There's sticky labels next to each part with a one word summary so I can quickly scrawl my eyes over it and I'll be crossing out each one so I dont look up and down like a panic'd actor reading his script.
Good luck cause with Valve I think I'd blow my balls.
Oh and listen to some music. I'm getting my confidence listening to some God of War music.
edit: Just confirming that the interview went well and the beer really helped
As far as nerves go, I'm a huge supercross fan and remember an interview Jeremy McGrath gave a few years ago. He was asked if he was nervous when he had his first supercross race. He said some people get under the bright lights of the big arena and wilt to the nerves and the pressure and fall to the back of the pack. But he look at it as his opportunity to rise to the occasion and show the world he's a champion.
The fact you got an interview shows you are more than capable.
Good luck and go shine.
This will help you with the good advice others have already given.
HAHAHAAHAH!, oh polycount!:D
also,
GRATS, DOOD! valve should be BADASS.
Thanks, that was great to watch.
Good luck mang!
Especially your work, but they've already seen that. What about you, why should they hire you?
- Don't drink any caffeine: getting the jitters won't help at all. I drank a ton of coffee before an interview once and it just made my heart race and make me more nervous.
- Like others have said, remember that they already think you're good. Be confident in your abilities without being cocky. Americans seem to do a good job of this - but if you're from New Zealand (or a similar culture) like me, being a self-deprecating dork is hard to avoid.
- Make sure you've been eating well and drinking heaps of water. Also, have a glass of water you can sip on while you're interviewing - getting dry mouth is just gross.
- Definitely go to the loo beforehand.
- Don't wear pants.
- If it comes up, don't be afraid to let them know a little bit about yourself - lots of people look at a "good fit" within the team when hiring.
Good luck dude! Let us know how you get on!
edit: best of luck to you Y_M, would be a most excellent gig to land, and I doubt they'd be calling you if they didn't think you had what it takes
The in-person interview is rigorous, exhausting but also enjoyable. After the 7 hour ordeal all I could do was fall asleep in my hotel room at like 730-8PM. The good news is you don't wait around after the interview to find out if you have the job or not. They'll tell you at the end if they'd like to hire you. I won't go in to specifics about the actual interview process beyond mentioning that it was an 'all day' thing.
*Unless they find out early in the day they don't want to hire you, they'll cut it short (so I was told).
Ha, perna I can't tell if you're trolling.
Who the hell gets nervous about crunch time? These two things are not mutually significant in my opinion. Unless he's a blubbering fool on the phone who can't get his words in order when forming a sentence, this is a non-point to make.
Hopefully they'll see asking for advice when unsure as a pretty useful skill to have.
I'd be more worried that they might make some assumptions about my clothing habits during crunch time! :poly142:
I've cooled off a lot since last night, I'm still quite tense but the positive reinforcement from you guys is really helping. A good night's sleep tonight and a calm weekend preparing potential answers and I should have my cool back by Monday.
They'll know he's not wearing pants.. lol
Be prepared to answer questions about anything and everything about yourself and your work. Never lie.
It will most likely be a long conversation so have some water near by to drink if you need it so your not fumbling around in the kitchen later on.
Write questions down that you feel are important to ask them before hand. Remember an interview is a two way street, they are trying to assess if you would work out at there company and fit in, and your trying to assess if working for there company is the right fit for you. Just because its a big named studio dosnt means its the right place for you.
"We're sorry, the page you requested cannot be found."
Thanks man, I needed to calm down a little myself!
I hope thats a joke :poly142:
Usually if you go to a company's website they will have a list of products.
http://www.valvesoftware.com/
You may have heard of a few of their games.
farmville
Is steam any good? What's it about?
Looking back to where you wrote 'nerves', I read that as 'nervous', which had me confused and questioned your reply. I was so confused I just assumed you were having some fun and taking the piss out of Y_M. My bad :thumbup:
OT/crunch can certainly be stressful.
Got a full 9-5 day at uni first, that kinda sucks, I don't want to be too tired.
Maybe one piece of advice: they might ask you something along the lines off "what would you improve in our games?", I'm pretty sure I've been asked this twice in phone interviews and I always had an answer ready.
Take it easy, mate. You'll do fine.
And miss a double particle physics lecture with Fred Loebinger, are you insane!?
Fortunately the first four lectures today are ones I can turn my brain off in, the first three don't even involve writing
Feeling pretty relaxed now and I actually enjoy Fred's lectures biggest hurdle now is being alert and fully awake come 7pm
Now I have to wait a day or two to know if they want another interview, scary time.